Letters of my life; some of them positive, some of them about fishing, all of them about US = Johnno a mad keen (obsessed) fisherman, Myself (Positive Karen), and our two dogs Puppy and Charlie, as we enjoy a life of fishing, food and fitness, while trying to keep some kind of balance.
Johnno followed the signs and got his first tuna for 2017
Ok so he keeps reminding me it's not his 'first' fish of the year, it's just the first one I've taken photos of. Seems he has caught lots on fly already.. (obviously not a permit, I would have had to get a photo of that!!)
MY fishing tackle of choice while watching Johnno fly fishing.
It's was two weeks after Black Thing took a rest, that we got 'her' back on the water. Not wanting to go too far first time out, we had planned to hit some flats of the Exmouth Gulf close to shore.
Or course Exmouth weather had different plans for us once again. Finally we had beautiful calm water that we are always hoping for in the weekends....only for the cloud cover to stay ALL day, making it so hard for sight fishing any flats we went to.
One of the most wonderful thing about Exmouth fishing, is it's diversity, and this being a top reason we moved here, so when it's not happening MOVE!
Sight casting was 'almost' impossible, (one could cast at fish as they swam under the boat, but one knows it's a lost cast by then??). But the universe/fishing gods gave us other signs...birds!! The birds told us to give up on the flats and follow them, and so it was!
Johnno's 1st 2017 Tuna
But wait the fishing gods were in a good mood this morning, they were not finished with Johnno Marven just yet.. here have another one they said!
Do you set goals/resolutions at the start of each year?
I do, some years are more serious than others. Last year was a fun year, lots of lazy morning sleep in's and afternoon beer drinking sessions. I'd set simple goals at the start of 2016 with this relaxed year in mind, so I wasn't 100% focused, just enjoying the laid back feel of the whole year.
When a friend/mentor passed this year I received this message from her.
It's my new Moto that I live by.
2016 Goals.
1) Catching my first Sailfish: We will call 2016 the year of learning, planning and preparation for this goal! It certainly was not from lack of trying! We had plenty of time on the water together, we raised fish, we had free swimmers beside the boat, and I seen my first free jumper. Towards the end of the year I joined an all girls fishing team for a 3 day comp, unfortunately it was one of the worst comps on record for the club, but I learnt so much from the team, and did get to see my first Sail caught, tagged and released.
2) Running 6km in 30mins: Considering I didn't do any regular running long enough to actually work towards this goal, I was well impressed that I did get down to 32 mins a few times during the year! That's a close enough, tick for me!
3) Sometimes goals change, during the year I realised I no longer wanted a fishing Kayak, my priorities changed once I started Fly Fishing again :) It the start of the year I had pictured myself lure fishing from the Kayak while Johnno was wading the flats. We did the Fly Fishing Festival here in Exmouth, I learnt so much and regained my passion for fly fishing. I now want to be wading the flats also, or standing up fishing from the tinny, even better.
4) YES!!! See photo at top of Blog! Swimming with the Whale Shark happened the very first time we took 'Black Thing' (our boat) West Side. It was an amazing experience that I hope to repeat many times over while living in Exmouth. Unfortunately it was the day I lost my GoPro, which never got replaced until the end of the year.
5) Due to the more than normal Rainy Day's in Exmouth we both did a lot of cooking experimenting, and learnt a lot of new favourite foods.
6) I only found out that there is a new tattooist in Exmouth, so this goal is now being rolled over to 2017 :)
7) Writing a Blog every 2nd week: This blog will be my 25th 2016 blog...if i'd written it in 2016. I didn't write every 2 weeks, due to long rainy intervals I thought I had nothing to write about. But 25 blogs was the end target, so yes a tick for this one as well!
8) Johnno Built us a Bar!! Yes! I brought an outdoor setting and bar chairs. We now have a wonderful beer drinking area...shame 2017 is going to be all about health and fitness again.
9) We renovated one bedroom completely, prefect for all our fishing friends to come and visit. Second room only needed miner maintance. Third room has been rolled over to 2017 goals, I forgot how long painting takes!!
10) I caught plenty of smaller GT's over the year. My biggest Trevally might not technically be a 'Giant' Trevally, but Golden starts with G, so I'm ticking this off as successfully done. It was an awesome moment, and awesome fish, and an awesome photo!!
